Sailor Moon

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Sailor Moon is a media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. The series began as a manga published in 1991 and the anime adaptation began airing in March 1992. Since then, the series have been adapted into several different languages, including English. One of the series' later localizations (the first dub having been in French),[1] the English version has served as a profound introduction of anime to mainstream entertainment around the world.[2] The entire manga series has also been translated into English twice.

The executive producer for the first 82 English adapted anime episodes was Andy Heyward and the other for the entire localization and the three films was Janice Sonski. Lisa Lumby-Richards is the only writer to be credited throughout the seasons, and the only script writer listed in the credits for the three Sailor Moon films and the last 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R.

Contents

The English adaptation of Sailor Moon was produced in an attempt to capitalize on the success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.[3] After a bidding war with Toon Makers,[4]DIC Entertainment (which at the time was owned by The Walt Disney Company)[5] acquired the rights to the first two seasons of the Sailor Moon franchise in early 1995,.[6]Carl Macek adapted the first few episodes for an English-speaking audience, and was then replaced by Fred Ladd and Lisa Lumby-Richards.[7] Through the omission of 6 episodes that were considered a lack of interest or inappropriate for the target audience, and the merging of two, the total episode count for the original adapted episodes was reduced from 72 to 65, the minimum number of episodes required for strip syndication on U.S. television, stopping mid-way through Sailor Moon R. These remaining episodes were each cut by several minutes to make room for more commercials, to censor plot points or visuals deemed inappropriate for children, and to allow the insertion of brief "educational" segments called "Sailor Says" at the end of each episode. The remaining 17 episodes of Sailor Moon R were not adapted until 1997 after the series gained popularity in North America and were treated in much the same way; when Sailor Moon R was translated, it was marketed under the same title as the first season. At the time, it was unusual for anime theme songs to be translated, and this was one of the first such themes to be redone in English since Speed Racer.[8] In addition, some episodes from the first two seasons of Sailor Moon were introduced with the following text:

“

From a far away place and time, Earth's greatest adventure is about to begin.

”

Production of the North American versions of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon Super S, as well as the movies from Cloverway Inc. (the international branch of Toei Animation, the Japanese production company), was strikingly different from DIC's dubs of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R in that they were much closer to the original version. The original animation and music was kept, except for the opening theme, which was the same as DiC's version with different animation, the closing theme, which omitted the vocal track, and CGI scene transitions which were continued for the edited television broadcast version to maintain consistency with the DiC-produced episodes. The "Sailor Says" segments were eliminated, and much less overt censorship was in evidence, as the rules for children's television in America having been relaxed in the intervening years due to the advent of a TV ratings system; the show itself was rated "TV-Y7-FV". However, many Sailor Moon fans disliked Cloverway's "Americanization" of the two series by the addition of slang words (such as "fine" or "buggin'") with no corollary in the Japanese series, as well as incorrect or inconsistent attack and transformation phrases being used at times.[9][10][11] They also vehemently objected to the treatment of the characters of Sailor Uranus (Amara/Haruka Tenoh) and Sailor Neptune (Michelle/Michiru Kaioh) during Sailor Moon S. Though it was never stated in the series, Naoko Takeuchi confirmed that they were lesbians; in Cloverway's adaptation they became "cousins" instead, an attempt to explain their relationship away as something else, since homosexuality is typically an extremely taboo subject in American children's entertainment.[12]

The Cloverway-dubbed episodes are also notable for not reuniting many key members of the lead voice cast, resulting in many recasts, despite being recorded using the same studio. Out of all the major characters, only Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Luna, and Artemis retained their voices from the original seasons, however, Mars' voice was different during the additional 17 episodes from Sailor Moon R, making Sailor Jupiter the only inner Sailor Scout to be voiced by a single voice actress throughout the entire English run.

The dub was recorded at Optimum Studios in Toronto, Ontario, with Canadian actors in most of the character roles. The show was originally distributed for broadcast syndication by Seagull Entertainment, and later by Buena Vista Television and the Program Exchange. As indicated by the Optimum Productionswebsite, most the writing staff is employed by Optimum; as such, several writers are common to both the DiC and the Cloverway produced versions of the show (in Cloverway's case, the writers were employed by Optimum). The company boasts "trained adapters" who use "hip" colloquialized dialogue of the target country.

The English adaptation of Sailor Moon began broadcasting on August 28, 1995, on YTV in Canada, and entered syndication in the United States two weeks later on September 11th 1995. While the show had moderate success on YTV, in the U.S. the show struggled in early morning "dead" timeslots,[13][14] implied to be due to local shows taking precedence for better times.[13] The series was removed from syndication in 1996 after the original 65 English episodes were broadcast,[15][16] leaving it in a cliffhanger. In response to this, a fan organization called "Save Our Sailors" (SOS) was created.[17] A 1996 Internet petition for the return of Sailor Moon is said to have garnered 30,000 signatures.[15] Syndication meant that it was harder for Sailor Moon to make a profit, as advertising slots had to be sold, and ratings were key to selling advertising spots - which was difficult given the unfavorable times at which Sailor Moon was being aired. SOS organised a procott where fans would buy Pop-Tarts to persuade them to advertise during Sailor Moon.[18] The show was later picked up for US broadcast by Turner Broadcasting and resurfaced on their USA Network a year later where it aired for several months before leaving the network after broadcasting all original 65 English episodes.[17]

Although the series aired at various times in America, in Canada it was fairly consistently given an early-afternoon timeslot (YTV scheduled the program for noon), and this consistency may explain how Sailor Moon was initially far more of a ratings success in Canada than in the United States. In addition, the dialogue in the English-dubbed Sailor Moon was recorded in Toronto, and YTV had many on-air interviews with several of the lead voice actors. Since the series was considered legal "Canadian content" by the network, more effort was made to promote the series.

DiC originally dubbed a total of 65 episodes for distribution in 1995, a number that took them approximately two-thirds of the way through Sailor Moon R. Two years later, funding was acquired by DiC to dub the remaining 17 Sailor Moon R episodes into English and the episodes were broadcast in Canada to wrap up lingering plotlines. The last episode of Sailor Moon R was a clip show episode, which featured previews for Sailor Moon S, the show's third season. The remainder of Sailor Moon R was brought over to America a year later, initially billed as "The Lost Episodes."[17]

Cloverway Inc., the international branch of Toei Animation, the Japanese studio that produced the original version of the anime, later picked up the distribution rights to Sailor Moon S and SuperS from DiC as a result of the show's ongoing popularity.

In 1998, as a result of the Turner deal, Cartoon Network was given the rights to the original 65 English-dubbed Sailor Moon episodes and began airing them as part of its anime-themed Toonami block. The decision proved extremely profitable for Cartoon Network, as ratings for the show helped boost viewership for the Toonami programming block and generated revenue and interest for them to acquire more anime shows such as Dragon Ball Z to add to the block. Cartoon Network later acquired the rights to the 17 remaining Sailor Moon R episodes, and subsequently aired English versions of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS. The S and Super S episodes also aired in Canada on YTV in 2000.

The S and SuperS English dubs were first broadcast in 2000 on Cartoon Network as part of their Toonami programming block, and also on YTV; and 13 episodes of the S dub were picked up for airing on Kids' WB in September 2001, airing for 2 weeks, even continuing to air the remaining episodes after the September 11 attacks. The films were also licensed by Cloverway and aired on Cartoon Network and YTV. The broadcast syndication license for Sailor Moon in North America expired on May 31, 2004, and Cartoon Network lost the rights to it in May 2003 before this point, thus ending the English version's run in the United States, however, the show was pulled from Cartoon Network's schedule in July 2002 before that point.

In addition to Cloverway's edits, Cartoon Network cut out 1–2 minutes of footage per episode to make room for more commercials when shown on their network. Occasionally, they made additional changes to skip visuals they believed were inappropriate. For example, an image of full rear nudity when Sailor Uranus detransforms was skipped.[19] Most cuts were made similar to DiC Entertainment's censorship policy (see "Alterations" below) although not as harsh nor restricted to just cutting out. Two episodes were skipped by Cartoon Network when the problem could not be solved. Episode 119 for instance was at first skipped because its monster-of-the-day was essentially naked, and thus deemed too risque for the show's target audience. In the series' second run, however, the episode finally aired, and solved the monster's revealing skin by digitally adding in a bikini to it.[20] Episode 152 was also skipped by Cartoon Network, but for reasons that are not as clear. Like Episode 119, it also eventually aired on the series' second run.[21] The Edited VHS releases of Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon SuperS by Pioneer Home Entertainment used the cut footage shown on Cartoon Network, while the uncut VHS and DVD releases restore the cut scenes, including the controversial ones.

During 1996-97, a total of six VHS tapes, each containing two key (nonconsecutive in most cases) episodes of the series, were released by Buena Vista Home Video through DIC Entertainment. These tapes were originally available exclusively through Toys 'R' Us stores, but later saw wider distribution in other chains. In 2001, a VHS boxset containing all thirteen episodes of the "Doom Tree" storyline (the first part of R) was released, also through Buena Vista.

Pioneer Entertainment (later Geneon Entertainment) had the rights to release Sailor Moon S, Super S, and the movies to Region 1 DVD and VHS under license from Cloverway. They released the movies in English dubbed and subtitled versions, as well as the edited TV versions, to VHS and DVD in 1999. They released Sailor Moon S and Super S to home video in a similar format in 2000. That same year, ADV Films released the English dubs of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R in a 20 volume VHS series series under license from DiC.[22] During 2001, Pioneer had released Sailor Moon S and SuperS in four different stock-keeping units, and released a box set of the movies in that October.[23] The first two seasons were later taken to DVD in 2002, released over fourteen Region-1 DVDs from ADV Films. ADV later released a subtitled version of the entire Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R series in two separate limited edition DVD box sets in 2004-uncut, except for the removal of next episode previews and one episode (67) from the Sailor Moon R set, and using different versions of some openings than were in the original. ADV's license to distribute Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R in either form expired at the end of March 2004. Geneon's license expired in 2005.

The plot of episode 67 involves Chibiusa finding and befriending a dinosaur, but not any fighting against the main villains of the series. Its absence is notable due to it being Sailor Moon R's requisite "summer holiday" episode, of which one was featured in each of the five Sailor Moon series. Some printings of the ADV box set include a full description of episode 67 in their liner notes, perhaps suggesting that the decision to remove it was done relatively late in the production process.

So far, no American company is known to have ever had the rights to release either of the theatrical shorts, the Super S TV special, or the Sailor Stars season.

In Australia, the first 65 syndicated episodes of Sailor Moon were first seen afternoons on the ABC's children's block in late 1995.[24][25] The following year, they were transferred to the Seven Network's Agro's Cartoon Connection. They were replayed there several times, until early 1999, when Seven would finally air the newer 17 episodes. All 82 English episodes would be played on Seven once more; from late 1999 to early 2000 on their morning program, The Big Breakfast. In early 2002, the series was again transferred, this time to Network Ten's Cheez TV. Cheez TV only played the first 65 episodes (twice), and due to classification restrictions, were forced to skip two episodes, "Match Point for Sailor Moon" (ostensibly because the episode's "monster of the day" had visible breasts) and "A Friend in Wolf's Clothing" (due to a graphic death scene).

Sailor Moon also played on Australian cable network Fox Kids in September 2001; Fox Kids was the first Australian outlet to play the entirety of the English-dubbed series, with Sailor Moon S starting in April 2002 and Sailor Moon Super S starting in August 2002. In December 2002, Fox Kids aired a marathon of all 159 episodes over two weeks.

Network Video released six volumes of Sailor Moon on VHS spanning the first 18 episodes in 1996.

In 2002, Madman Entertainment acquired the rights to Sailor Moon video distribution in Australia and released the 82 DIC dubbed episodes on both DVD and VHS. These releases were nearly identical to the ones by ADV. The releases did well, with Madman stating they were in the process of acquiring the rights to release at least Season 1 uncut with subtitles as well. However, after the rights expired and were not renewed by Toei, this was no longer possible and the English volumes previously released also ceased to be printed.

Sailor Moon first aired on Fox Kids, now known as Disney XD, in the United Kingdom in 1996 using the North American DiC Entertainment dub. Fox Kids repeated the Dark Kingdom arc and the Alan and Ann arc of Sailor Moon R until airing the rest of R around the end of 2000. Fans with the Internet found out about the later seasons, and signed petitions to put Sailor Moon S on Fox Kids. Fox Kids stated repeatedly that they were going to, and in 2002 they showed a preview clip with scenes from the S season that declared "New episodes of Sailor Moon coming soon!". The channel, however, never aired the series.

Around this time, ITV1 started showing Sailor Moon in a kids' segment of GMTV on Saturday mornings, called "Up on the Roof" but later renamed "Toonattik". This, despite time edits which compounded the already problematic DIC Entertainment cuts, proved popular. However, since Fox Kids held the UK rights for Sailor Moon but would not give them up apart from the inaugural thirteen episodes, Sailor Moon was canceled on that network and shortly thereafter canceled on Fox Kids as well. Although ITV put the first 13 episodes they had on VHS, they did not sell very well. MVM, a UK anime company, released the dub versions of the first 24 episodes on VHS in 2001/2003, and then the complete first two seasons on DVD in 2003/2004. A box set of the first season were also released, but did not sell well either,[26] a fact MVM attributes to the dub only status of the DVDs, as MVM were unable to secure uncut masters, and major retailers' refusal to support the show meaning the release neither appealed to children nor older anime fans.[26]

Main article: Editing of anime in American distributionThe North American version of the Sailor Moon anime was translated and distributed in 1995 by DIC Entertainment, initially airing on YTV in Canada and various television stations in the United States. Although the basic storyline remained the same, many alterations were made to the original Japanese material in order to make it acceptable for the younger target age group in America. So censorship was often applied due to differences between Japanese and American ideas about what is and is not appropriate material for younger viewers (a process known as Americanization).

Some Sailor Moon fans who are familiar with the original Japanese version express dislike over the English adaptation,[27] as the censorship levels of the English-dubbed version ranged from mild to severe. The censorship resulted in negative responses from purists of the series. The edits were made in several ways:

General renaming

Besides individual characters, the Sailor Senshi became the "Sailor Scouts" instead of the more accurate translation "Sailor Soldiers". The latter term is used throughout the S series, whilst the group are almost always introduced as "Sailor Scouts" by Sailor Moon in SuperS. Almost all of the original attacks were renamed despite already being in English, and the phrase "Make-up!" was removed from transformations. It was replaced with the "Scout Power!" or "Transform!" only in group transformations. Scripts were also rewritten to suggest that all enemies came from the so-called "Negaverse," rather than having distinct alliances and histories, although the original manga has all the villains revealed to be different forms of a demon named Chaos. This practice was soon downplayed by DIC themselves, and dropped altogether once Cloverway took over.

Omission of the original Japanese music

The original background music was mainly recorded by a live orchestra, while the English dub music was all computer-made. The melody of the original theme song, "Moonlight Densetsu" ("Moonlight Legend"), contrary to popular belief, was not retained for the dub's theme song, but the tempo was altered, an electric guitar riff was added, and only a small portion of the original music was retained in the very beginning with very different lyrics and redone instrumentation, animation, and special effects. A shorter version of the same song was used at the ending credits, replacing the original ending credit song. After Cloverway took over from DiC (episode #90 onwards) the original background music was retained, but the DiC theme song was kept.

Title sequences

An opening sequence was created using clips from the original Japanese openings, as well as clips taken from the series. Most of the clips used were taken from dub episodes 18-40. The names of the all five Guardian Senshi were revealed in the song accompanied by a clip of their first attack. Small transition sequence-animations were added, used whenever the story skipped ahead in time or from one scene or location to another. Some of these were made with CGI. In addition, the original eyecatch-animations for the mid-episode commercial breaks were removed, and a differently-colored version of the show's logo was used. The TV and VHS releases of S and SuperS include these alterations, but are not included in the DVD releases.

Plot alterations

Some elements of the plot or dialogue were rewritten, often resulting in continuity problems from one episode or one scene to the next. For example, in "Day of Destiny," "Serena" (Usagi) remembers a scene in which she and "Darien" (Mamoru) fall off a balcony and she uses an umbrella to float safely to the ground, but that scene was cut from the actual dub episode from which it came. A one minute "explanation sequence" was added at the beginning of episode one, explaining the background story of the plot. This sequence was edited together by clips from later episodes, combined with a narration voice. Often clips were used in these previews that were not viewed in the English season; defeating the purpose.

[1][2]A bathing scene in the original series and the English dub. In the English dub (second image), the water is made opaque.;Censoring

Complete omission of six episodes by the dubbers for varying reasons not always but usually stemming from content concerns. These included the use of fortune telling and tarot cards in the second episode and Usagi's transformation into an older, "punkish" version of herself to get into a piano bar in the sixth episode. Removal of much of the adolescent sexuality, and of homosexual relationships. These relationships were 'solved' in three separate cases: twice by giving effeminate men a female voice actor and using feminine pronouns to make their relationships heterosexual. This was done with Zoisite, who was in a relationship with Kunzite, and with Fisheye, who cross-dressed and was openly attracted to various men (including Mamoru Chiba). They also made the character Zirconia male instead of female, due to fears that her relationship to Queen Nehellenia was bordering on being romantic. They made the characters Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune cousins (with the characters, who should have no knowledge of this fact, stating it regularly) instead of a lesbian couple with mixed results; while some of the flirting was removed, some of it was also left intact in order to appease fans wanting it to be closer to the original. This accidentally implied them to be incestuous lesbian lovers. For scenes of near-nudity, such as transformation sequences, body lines were removed around the breasts and pubic regions, and for bathing scenes, the situation was solved by either digitally "raising" the water level around the cleavage or by eliminating body visibility by toning the water a solid color with the rest of the body being hidden. In the DVD releases, the original sequences were left intact.[28] Also, there were removals of "any violence"[29] including violence to children[30] and removal or alteration of small details like people sticking their tongues out; these scenes were believed to have a potentially negative influence on children's behavior.

Cultural edits

Removal or altering of some, though not all, specifically Japanese cultural references which might not have made sense to English-speaking audiences - for example, changing dumplings to doughnuts, removing references to mock exams and other characteristics of the Japanese school system, such as marking right answers with circles and wrong answers with crosses, and changing the cram school that Ami Mizuno attends to a computer school, though the dub script did refer to it as a "cram" school once. At the same time, the English dub left most of the Japanese text on signs, in publications, etc. untouched and untranslated, with a few exceptions, such as the sign over the junior high school. Even things inherent to the animation style, such as the famous Anime Sweat drop, were removed. Some scenes involving cars or buses were also flipped so the vehicles would be driven on the right side of the road instead of the left side. This occasionally caused inconcistencies when some scenes were not flipped.

Target audience additions

An end-of-show "morals" segment, "Sailor Says", which was added on to each episode to satisfy the contemporary requirement of educational content on American children's TV shows. This addition no longer occurred after Cloverway acquired the license. On several occasions, the "Sailor Says" segments - which were played out as voice-overs over vaguely-related clips from the episode they were tacked on to - contained footage that had been cut from the dubbed version of that episode, including some of the more controversial footage.

Perhaps most remembered among fans was the treatment of the episode "Day of Destiny," which concluded the first series. The original version of this episode was actually two separate episodes, the first of which included the deaths of all the Sailor Soldiers except for Sailor Moon herself; as the storyline progressed, Sailors Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Mars sacrificed themselves to protect their friend and leader. The second episode involved the deaths of Tuxedo Mask and ultimately Sailor Moon herself. Though each character was resurrected in the conclusion, it was still deemed necessary to remove all references to death in the American episode: instead of being killed, the Senshi's death scenes were rewritten[29] to say that the girls were captured and held hostage in the Negaverse. Enough editing was required, in fact, that the two episodes were merged into one.

Before Sailor Moon's American debut, DIC distributed a promotional tape to syndicators and stations to sell the series. This tape is notable in that it features completely different names for the five main characters; Usagi was called "Victoria," Ami "Blue," Rei "Dana," Makoto "Sarah," and Minako "Carrie." Tuxedo Mask was temporarily "The Masked Tuxedo."[31] However, when the series aired the names were closer to their original form, either in sound or meaning:

The only Sailor Senshi who retains her original name is Hotaru Tomoe, though in line with English pronunciation practice, the final 'e' in her family name is not pronounced, for /ˈtoʊ.moʊ/ with two syllables, rather than Japanese [to.mo.e] with three.

The North American version was the first experience with Sailor Moon (if not anime in general) for much of the English-speaking world, and the differences between the two versions led to much confusion. However, many fans worldwide would never have known about the series had it not reached North America, and so many regard the North American version as a mixed blessing. Of course, many fans do like the dub version.[32][33]

When Sailor Moon was up for bids by Toei to be produced in North America, Renaissance-Atlantic Entertainment, who worked closely with Bandai and Toon Makers, Inc., conceptualized their own version of the property, which was half live-action and half Western-style animation. Toon Makers produced a 17-minute proof of concept presentation video, as well as a two-minute music video, for this concept, which Renaissance-Atlantic presented to Toei. Toei ultimately rejected Renaissance-Atlantic's bid because the series as Renaissance-Atlantic and Toon Makers envisioned it would have cost significantly more than simply exporting and dubbing the original anime.[34]

The music video was exhibited at a panel at Anime Expo 1998 by Allen Hastings, then with NewTek, Inc., and met with scorn, ridicule, and derision. A convention attendee taped the music video off the screen and uploaded the footage, which includes an introduction by Hastings and brief comments by other convention attendees afterwards, to the Internet. The clip has since been copied numerous times and can currently be viewed on many streaming video sites. Because of the relatively poor quality of the source video and circulated footage, many anime fans believed that the music video was actually a leaked trailer for the now-inactive project instead of an exhibition of a promotion piece. Additional copies of the footage, with Hastings' intro excised, have since been uploaded to the Internet and served only to bolster the mistaken belief.[34]

Because Renaissance-Atlantic had previously been instrumental in Saban Entertainment's acquisition of Toei's Super Sentai series for reimagining as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, people who viewed the music video mistakenly believed that Saban had actually created it and began to call it "Saban Moon." The Toon Makers music video has been called a worst-case scenario with regards to how Sailor Moon would have been presented in North America, in comparison to the original anime episodes that were eventually dubbed by DIC Entertainment and Cloverway Inc. and aired.[35]Rocky Solotoff, Toon Makers' president and founder, wrote, directed, and produced the pilot episode of Renaissance-Atlantic's version of Sailor Moon, which to this day, has not been exhibited publicly.[34]

All five Guardian Senshi are depicted in the music video. Though Solotoff is legally prohibited from divulging much information regarding the Renaissance-Atlantic/Toon Makers version of Sailor Moon, he does reveal, in an interview with Animefringe magazine, the origin of the concept and music video, debunking many of the stories and speculations that had been connected to both.[36] Details revealed in the interview include confirmation that both a white and black cat were planned to be in the series, although only a fluffy white cat is seen in the music video (according to the lyrics, this cat was meant to be Luna), and that each Senshi was written to be of a different nationality.[34]

Two curious remnants of Toon Makers' involvement with Sailor Moon remained after Renaissance-Atlantic shelved the project. The Renaissance-Atlantic series featured vehicles which did not appear in the original metaseries. One of these was the Moon Cycle, which Bandai manufactured a toy version of as part of the North American line of Sailor Moon toys. The Moon Cycle toy remains one of the more curious pieces of Sailor Moon merchandise produced for the North American market. More prominently, the Sailor Moon logo featured at the end of the music video was retained as the official North American Sailor Moon logo for the metaseries and all related programs and merchandising.

Although the original manga came before the TV series, it was not initially translated into English until three years after the anime. The original English version of the manga was released in 1998 by manga publisher Mixx (now renamed Tokyopop). The manga was initially syndicated in MixxZine but was later pulled out of that magazine and moved into a secondary magazine called Smile.[37]Smile serialized the SuperS storyline, while the portions of the earlier storylines that were not finished in MixxZine finished as individual comic books.[38] Daily pages from the Tokyopop version ran in the Japanimation Station, a service accessible to users of America Online.[39] Like many early manga titles released in the US, the Tokyopop editions of the Sailor Moon manga remained flopped in a mirror image to conform to American book standards for the entire run.

The U.S. Sailor Moon monthly comic ran for 35 issues, and aside from finishing up the Dark Kingdom storyline, it featured the manga versions of Sailor Moon R and Super. The US manga volumes were released as three series: "Sailor Moon", which collects the first three arcs (the Dark Kingdom, Black Moon, and Infinity arcs), Sailor Moon SuperS, which collects the Dream arc, and Sailor Moon Stars, which collects the Stars arc. The original Codename: Sailor V manga was not a part of Mixx/Tokyopop's release. As of May 2005, Tokyopop's license to the Sailor Moon manga has lapsed, and the original Tokyopop editions are officially out of print.[40]

For the most part, the names chosen for the English manga matched up with those chosen the English television dub. Some modifications were made—for instance, Darien is given a surname, Shields (a play off of his Japanese name, Mamoru, 'to guard/protect'), and Serena is usually called by the nickname "Bunny" (a literal translation of her original name, Usagi). Other senshi are given family names matching the Japanese versions (Tsukino, Aino, Kino, Mizuno, and Hino). The Outer Senshi, who were introduced in the English manga before their appearance in the American run of the anime, retain their original names. The manga was also flipped left to right, which was standard at the time of publication. The US manga, while omitting some of the bonus artwork included in the original manga, featured new bonus artwork commissioned exclusively for the US manga series. Inserts, dust jackets, and introductory pages were cut for budget. There were a few minor tweaks at the beginning, where many of the girls talked in stereotypical teenager talk. This was later changed when the editor changed. Also, in the instance of a poem by William Butler Yeats having been used in the text, the editors translated it back from the Japanese rather than using the original English.[41]

Other changes of note are the covers, which do not exactly match the original, and the sizes of the manga are slightly different. (The original is 4.5" x 6.75", but the Mixx manga is 4.5" x 7.75".) As Sailor Moon was Mixx's first title, the quality of its translation in the beginning is considered poor, though it improves somewhat towards the end of its publication run.

Mixx also altered Takeuchi's side-notes in the manga, completely rewriting them so the fundamental points were the same but they took on the appearance of an interview between herself and MixxZine (which did not occur). Cultural references were Americanized, and because Japanese is read right-to-left and English is read left-to-right, Mixx flipped the pages (save for full-page images) so that all the drawings were mirror-images.

Kodansha USA Publishing announced on March 18, 2011 that its Kodansha Comics imprint will reprint the Sailor Moon manga and its two-volume prequel Codename: Sailor V starting in September.[42]

The new edition — with "new cover art, retouched interior art and dialogue along with extensive bonus material from Takeuchi" is based on the 2003 Japanese re-release of the manga,.[43] The release's English translation is adapted more close to the Japanese original, and is expected to retain the relationship between Haruka and Michiru. In addition, the Kodansha Comics editions feature all the color pages made for the 2003 Japanese reissue[44] In addition, the books are being produced larger than the Mixx, Tokyopop, and Japanese editions. They are also the first English release of the Sailor Moon manga to be printed in its original right-to-left format as opposed to the left-to-right format of the Mixx/Tokyopop editions.

This first volume of Sailor Moon was published, along with the lead in series Codename: Sailor V, on September 13, 2011.[45][46] The manga continues to released bi-monthly[47][48][49][50] with the next Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V volumes being released on November 15, 2011.[47][48][51]

The Kodansha USA editions of Sailor Moon have been a success, with Sailor Moon and the first volume of Sailor V topping the New York Times Manga Bestsellers for the week September 11–17, 2011 with the #1 and #2 spots, respectively, and remaining in those positions for a second week. Both graphic novels have been consistently on the list, and Kodansha USA had to go into a second printing to meet demand. According to Nielson reports, Sailor Moon Volume 1 was the bestselling graphic novel for both September and October 2011. There are currently over 100,000 copies of both manga in print.[52][53] Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network noted in her review of the first Sailor Moon volume that there were many typos with homonyms, and that the new translation "sometimes sacrifices fluidity of language for accuracy".[54] Although the manga has been generally well received, and is usually regarded as an improvement over the Mixx/Tokyopop editions.

Online petitions requesting the dubbing of Sailor Stars have been held since 2000.[55]Sailor Stars, the final season of the Sailor Moon anime, was never dubbed originally because Toei was not putting it up for license. TokyoPop was looking into renegotiating the rights to the manga series.[56] On May 5, Marc Lunden of Mania Entertainment reported from Anime Central 2007 that "Toei [Animation] currently has a lockdown on all Sailor Moon licenses, but Geneon expressed interest in case the situation changed."[57] However, Geneon was merged with Universal Studios in February 2009. Similarly, Madman Entertainment was forced to stop print of the Sailor Moon DVD licenses it acquired, despite the R4 DVD releases being very successful.

In August 2007, Toei held a poll to determine viewer interest in potential series to make available for Video on Demand. There were 50 options, including popular titles such as Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Ojamajo Doremi.[58] The results of the poll show that 2535 out of 3979 votes—63.7 percent—had been placed for the Sailor Moon series. The Sailor Moon anime is currently part of a subscription service in Japan where premium members are allowed full access to their titles. This was produced in accordance with the ISP BIGLOBE and subscribers pay ¥1554 (US$13) (UK£6:50) per month.[59]

In May 2009, Funimation Entertainment released a poll to gauge consumer interest in potential DVD releases; one option was "re-dub of entire Sailor Moon series." This helped viewer interest rise, and got many fans' hopes up that Funimation may indeed license Sailor Moon. A fan campaign, organized by former members of the SOS group, continued to survey fans to gain their opinions on hypothetical details of the redub.[60] The poll has recently closed, and the results have not been publicly revealed.

In 2010, one of several YouTube videos featuring Sailor Moon was removed by Funimation, citing copyright infringement. The company later commented that, despite their attempts to acquire the rights to the series, the company does not have the rights yet.[61] In addition, Sailor Moon in chibi form was featured as a magnet decoration in a Funimation office during a Hetalia Axis Powers preview video.

On March 18, 2011, Kodansha Comics USA announced that they would be reprinting Sailor Moon in English in new deluxe editions beginning in September 2011, along with its prequel, Codename: Sailor V.[43] The first volume of both series were released on September 13, 2011,[45][46] and will continue to be to be released bi-monthly.[47][48][49][50][51]

Hot Topic has also licensed the exclusive apparel rights to the franchise, and has been offering T-Shirts both online and in Hot Topic stores, along with a Halloween costume as a part of their new costume line; leading some fans to hope that the anime will be licensed for an American release.[citation needed]

Toei froze the license to distribute Sailor Moon outside of Japan in 2004. On February 4, 2010, Toei began negotiations to re-license the series for an international release. In March 2010, a newly remastered Sailor Moon began broadcasting in Italy. Toei has confirmed if the series is popular in Italy, an international revival will be produced.[62]Sailor Moon has since also been re-licensed in several countries such as Albania, Hong Kong, Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, some African nations (for the first time), Israel (for the first time), Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Taiwan, The Philippines, Chile, Thailand, and Malaysia. However, it has yet to be announced if the Sailor Moon anime will be re-licensed for an English-language release, especially the un-aired Sailor Stars season, or any other material not available in English.[63] Recently, Toei is offering 200 refurbished episodes of Sailor Moon at MIPTV.[64]

^ The series originally aired in the USA at 9:00 am, and 2:00 pm, which Anne Allison describes as unsuitable for the target audience, Allison, Anne (2000). "A Challenge to Hollywood? Japanese Character Goods Hit the US". Japanese Studies (Routledge) 20 (1): 67–88. doi:10.1080/10371390050009075.